The Derecho

In August 2020, a powerful storm system known as a derecho made its way from Nebraska to Indiana, leaving behind a seven-hundred-mile-long trail of destruction. The term derecho was coined in the 1800s by a professor at Iowa State University and is the Spanish word meaning “straight.” According to the Des Moines Register, winds reaching speeds of up to 140 miles per hour caused massive damage. In Iowa, the hardest-hit state, houses, farms, businesses, and livestock were destroyed, along with 40 percent of the state’s corn and soybean crops.

Half a million Iowans were left without power.

Several lives were lost, and billions of dollars in damage was inflicted on the Hawkeye State. It was the costliest thunderstorm in the history of the United States. The Midwest derecho of 2020 struck with unanticipated ferocity, spawning numerous tornadoes and damaging countless trees.

Within weeks of the bruising weather event, thousands of Iowans had filed for unemployment benefits. Eight hundred fifty thousand crop acres were lost.* Writing in Testimonies for the Church, volume 8, Ellen White said, “A storm is coming, relentless in its fury.” Then she asked the question, “Are we prepared to meet it?”† That which is soon to come upon the earth will be of a far greater magnitude than anything we have ever witnessed. Speaking of the coming “time of trouble,” the same author writes, “It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal.”‡ Those who get news of an approaching hurricane quickly get to work preparing their homes. It is too late to board up windows when the storm is already upon you. Preparation must be done before the storm. Preparing in advance of the return of Jesus —surrendering the will to God, repenting of sin, and pleading for a new heart— will ensure God’s people will stand successfully in earth’s last days.